Time flies when you're having fun! I just realized the other day that we've moved in for just over 4 months! It's so nice to be in our own house again, and be able to just play house.

The Mr. has been building our closet with the little spare time that he has in a day, some nights right after dinner or playing floor hockey with the little man. Though I never rushed him (never did!), I'm sure he just wants to put this behind him. It's a huge undertaking, and I don't blame him one bit.

During this time while he was building the closet, I had my clothes at the seating area of our bedroom, while his were at the playroom's closet. All of a sudden our seating area looks so spacious =)

That's because the Mr. has completed our closet to a point where we can move in our clothes. Woo hoo!!

DIY Custom Closet Dressing Room Update | Glass Knobs | Classy Glam Living | Custom Closet with Drawers

Excuse the building material in the pic, they're just more handy for the Mr. while he was working in the closet. The Mr. was afraid that I won't have enough hanging space for my side of the closet. But after I've "KonMari"'d my clothes, I've purged bags of clothes and folded whatever I can KonMari-style. All those bottom drawers sure came in handy with the folded pieces of clothing. The vanity drawers are like our mini dresser for our intimates. Last but not least are my dream-come-true pull-out racks! The Mr. would use his side for ties and belts, and mine would be for scarves and belts. It's great to have a spot for everything.

The Mr. has primed and painted the exterior frames and the closet interiors. My colour inspiration was from this photo:

I love this bluish grey, not too dark nor too light. Our dressing room doesn't get much natural light, so a dark colour would make the area a dark hole. This shade will highlight the cabinet's detailing just right. A close match to this greyish blue is Benjamin Moore's Sidewalk Gray, which we chose in a glossy finish and tinted down to 50%.

This colour is a gentle backdrop for the gold hardware we chose for the closet. I stuck with one out of my choices of gold hardware mentioned here - a crystal knob for the vanity drawers that we'll also be using for our kitchen cabinets.

This time around, we opted to have doors for our closet, so that our clothes aren't collecting dust while they're just sitting around. (See the dressing room at our old house with open hanging space). While I was shopping for gold-toned handles for the doors, I noticed the Bar Series handles from Lew's Hardware are a very popular choice amongst decorators:

They would've been an easy choice, but I think that something dressier and less contemporary would be more appropriate for the dressing nook. The boxy bar seems to make everything else boxy in this boxy closet. So I continued to search for something more rounded. Rounded, I did not find, but looking around paid off... I found this gem:

The beveled hexagon ends really give this glass handle a gem-like resemblance. It has a good weight and it sparkles elegantly in person!

With this splurge for the glass handles, I sure was glad when we found plate handles at just $3 a piece at Ginger's clearance section! They would go on the bottom drawers, giving a balanced contrast to the sparkling hardware above them.

The 3 cabinet hardware look lovely together:

DIY Custom dressing room closet | Classy Glam Living | Cabinet hardware

Here is a hardware map for our dressing nook:

DIY Custom Closet Dressing Room Update | Classy Glam Living | Cabinet hardware

The Mr. is now working on the cosmetic fronts for the closet - trims, moldings, drawer fronts, and doors. Over the weekend, he has put in the first trim around the top of the drawers. I wanted a "lip" that extends just beyond the drawers to give the unit some details. Similar to my original closet inspiration from Carrie's closet in Sex and the City 2:

CARRIE'S CLOSET IN SEX AND THE CITY 2, IMAGE VIA MARKS & FRANTZ

DIY Custom Dressing Room Closet | Progress update | rope trim detail | Classy Glam Living

I thought the hardest part of building this closet was framing the structure and building the drawers, but he said the trim work and doors are just as much. I guess my point was, if he could build this closet from scratch, the trimwork and doors must be easy peasy to him.

And that's our little update on the Mr.'s DIY custom dressing room/ dressing nook/ closet. No matter what we call it, it's truly one of a kind. The Mr. is no carpenter; he's been learning as he went along, and I continue to be amazed by his skills... and dedication to the project.

Just as the Mr. thought that he's safe to move along and close up the closet with trims and moldings, I added a special request for the closet. Yup, the wifey requests never stop ;-) Can you guess what it is?

For the latest update, be sure to check my instagram feed!

Now into the second week of having moved in, we're still unpacking. Well, we took a break after we've unpacked the essentials, and continued to unpack once the crown moldings were installed. It was a nice break from all the boxes; afterall, there's no point to decorate just to have them be in the way for the crown installers, right?

We couldn't wait to decorate the entryway once the crown moldings were installed!

Unpacking may be an endless task, and I'm embarrassed to admit that, for a family of 3, we just have so much stuff! I didn't realize we were such hoarders - it took our 4 movers 7 hours to move out of the rental and into our new house. It's true that we don't have much furniture, as one of the movers said, but we have a lot of STUFF. As a result, I'm always looking for more storage space.

Then, as I was browsing for organizing methods, I learned about Marie Kondo, a celebrity organizer in Japan and author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. It sounded magical for sure, so I delved into it further and read the e-book in one go.

This isn't a book about cleaning, but more of decluttering by ridding of things that don't "spark joy" in us. It has a spiritual undertone to it, and in essence, it's more about a lifestyle change. That by knowing what you love, you become more grateful to your possessions, gain the ability to be a more decisive person (through the decluttering process), and make positive changes in life.

It's definitely an eye-opener and timing just couldn't be better! We're in a smaller house now, and it's ridiculous to still have so much after rounds of purging. We're at the best time to start with a clean slate as we unpack the boxes! This is the easiest way to declutter all in one go, as Marie Kondo stresses. Purge the unwanted, then store the remaining in its own place, to minimize rebounding back to clutter. Afterall, "tidying is not the purpose of life."

Little did I know, I was actually already following the Konmari method's order of decluttering - starting from your least emotionally attached items: clothing, books, papers/ documents, miscellany, and lastly, momentos.

I first learned about the capsule wardrobe after we moved into our rental last year, and have subsequently purged bags after bags of clothes. The essence of a capsule wardrobe indeed goes hand in hand with the KonMari method - keep and wear what you love, or "spark joy".

Gosh, this was embarrassing...  I've nothing to wear... — Gosh, this was embarrassing... I've nothing to wear...

For the next category, books, I've finally gotten rid of my textbooks from university... seriously, why did I even keep them?! As for novels, I only kept the ones that are classics - and I consider my Harry Potter collection a classic :-) I got rid of several boxes of books from this purge.

I'm currently tackling the miscellany category, and our biggest collection is undoubtedly home decor. We love all the home decor and accessories, and I was all for a layered look in our previous larger house. Though it's true a layered look is a feast for the eyes, too many home accessories would just make our current smaller home look cluttered. Not to mention, having too much stuff out also makes it a pain to clean, and encourages procrastinating on cleaning (speaking from experience here).

Our front hall table at the old house.  Layered look is "out" at our new house. — Our front hall table at the old house. Layered look is "out" at our new house.

More and more, I find myself loving the clean home decor look of the instagrammers I follow. They've shown me that I don't need a lot to make a space look comfortably lived in and welcoming. Having some blank space lets the eyes rest easily on single objects and devour their beauty. If I only display things that I love, I would opt to take better care of them with proper cleaning. I can totally relate to Marie Kondo here:

"Human beings can only truly cherish a limited number of things at one time As I am both lazy and forgetful, I can't take proper care of too many things. That is why I want to cherish properly the things I love, ..."

So, I'll be purging some home decor items that don't "spark joy" this week. Does a bowl with ratten balls on my coffee table spark joy? I think I'm over that phase.

And onto momentos... I'm a sentimental person, and naturally a hoarder of birthday cards and any occasional cards. When we moved from our old house, I've purged all Christmas cards from previous years. Sorry good friends. And now, I'm more than ready to rid of the birthday cards I've collected over the years. Though I still have a special box for all the cards the Mr. has given me since we started dating =) Yes, that sparks joy in me, forever.

"Souvenirs" from our recent Europe vacation - "sparks joy" - KEEP pile.

This is our third house, and third time must be the charm. I hope I've finally found a way to put our house in order! It's been liberating to purge and I haven't been browsing online stores aimlessly. My goal in following the KonMari Method is to have less, and buy less; spend less time in perfecting a layered look and more time enjoying our uncluttered house. I'm sure the Mr. will also breath a sigh of relief for not having to build racks after racks for storage after all this decluttering!

Have you taken on the KonMari challenge? Have you stay decluttered without rebounding back?